gravity bikes speed scene

the gravity bike history

The mid 1980's saw the birth of a new adrenaline gravity sport. The Gravity Bike. The sport was fueled by a new style bicycle on the scene, the BMX bike. It wasn't long guys were ditching the pedals and chain, reconfiguring the seats, designing knee rests, and handlebars. Now the only thing left, find the steepest road, jump on, tuck in and bomb the hill. The sport's popularity was propelled by magazines such as BMX Plus and BMX Action doing numerous articles and features on the bikes and riders. Features showed riders bombing historic gravity roads in Southern California such as, Glendora Mountain Road (GMR) and Cole Rd.

As far as historical record keeping of gravity bike's who's who, the where's and when's early on of the sport, it's somewhat poor at best. Many of the major riders and contributors of the sport have gone unrecognized. Literally hundreds, if not thousands, have mounted a G-Bike and silently hauled butt down the steepest road they could find. With the advent of the internet in the mid 90's, interest was sparked worldwide. Now riders around the world were in contact with each other sharing ideas and pics. The gravity bike popularity exploded. In 2000, the X Games had it's first and only Gravity Bike race, with the legendary, Tommy Brackens taking home the gold. Around 2010, the sport's racing popularity slowed somewhat. The International Gravity Sports Association (IGSA), founded by Marcus Rietema, had kept the racing alive with a Gravity Bike class in the IGSA race schedule that started in 1997 and ran thru 2011. Following the slight downturn in 2010, popularity has surged and has a huge following. In 2014 there were more riders around the world then anytime in the history of the sport. As of late, the National Championships were held in Australia in 2014, with Brett Phillips (AUS) taking the number one spot. In 2016, the sport has seen a major resurgence, the sport has taken off again ever where in the world except the United States. South America and Europe the sport is growing leaps and bounds with the new interest in the bikes with numerous outlaw and sanctioned races.

As far as the "certified" speed scene, nobody made any noise until 1998. An American rider named Dwight "Snarlin" Garland, bombed a hill in Fountain Hill, AZ. He posted an official run of 64.2 mph / 103.32 km/h speed to set a Guinness World Record. That record would stand for 19 years!. Certainly an impressive speed back then, however, riders showing GPS speeds today, have proven that speed is somewhat soft by today's gravity bike speeds. GPS speeds in the 70's are not uncommon. Still, no one would challenge the WGSA Unlimited Faired Gravity Bike record with a certified attempt for 19 years. Long live "Snarlin" Garland, the first true gravity speed bike world record holder.

Dwight "Snarlin" Garland

Schroeder records fastest speed for gravity bike

On Sept. 9 & 10, 2016 Cyril Schoeder (CAN) would emerge on the hill at the 2016 L'Ultime Descente at Les Eboulements, Canada and set the fastest officially recorded speed for a gravity bike. Cyril would do this while riding in the WGSA Stock Non-faired Speed Bike class. On the first day of the event, Cyril's first pass would surpass the Guinness world record held by Dwight Garland (USA) of 64.2 mph 103.32 km/h who was riding a Unlimited Faired Speed Bike at the time, whose class record still stands at this time. Throughout the day Schroeder would go faster increasing his top speed to 70.04 mph 112.73 km/h for the world record. On the next day, Schroeder would continue to up his new WGSA world record finishing the day out and raising the WGSA Stock Non-Faired Bike world record to 71.69 mph km/h 115.38 km/h! An awesome achievement for a non-faired bike. Cyril is how the fastest certified gravity bike in history.

Cyril Schroeder at speed.

Schroeder's WGSA World Record Sept 10, 2016

Even though, the sport's sanctioned races around the world have waned. More jockeys than ever around the world, still mount their two wheel gravity missiles and bomb the hills, just for the love and the thrill of this great sport that will never die. Two gravity bike promoters/builders/innovators/riders of modern day are Harlin Whitman of S.I.N. Cycles (USA) and Brett Phillips of GravityBike HQ (Australia). Both of these custom builders have produced some of the baddest ass gravity bikes ever to bomb a hill. S.I.N. Cycles in Portland, OR, always blows away the gravity community with their innovative G Bike designs and concepts. GravityBike HQ's Brett Phillips, constantly stuns the G-Bike world with his futuristic gravity bike creations, and for good reason, Brett holds multiple World Championship wins on them. Brett also owns one of the premier gravity bike websites on the worldwide web. These two gravity speed merchants names have already two wheeled their names down in gravity bike history books, as two of the greatest innovators of this great sport. Vive le GBikes! GO FAST.